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Teen, Playmate date get a lot of exposure Tustin student's essay on angst moves pinup to fill his dance card. January 27, 2002 By LORI BASHEDA The Orange County Register TUSTIN -- Call him Cinderfella. Senior Toby Hocking arrived at his Foothill High School winter formal Saturday with Playboy Playmate Petra Verkiak as his date - making his dad proud, his mom nervous and school officials slightly edgy. The pinup, who at 35 is twice Hocking's age, offered to take the teen to his formal after she read his college entrance essay and was moved to tears. Hocking is a straight-A clarinet player who sometimes fences -- not exactly the fast track to popularity. He wrote about feeling like an outcast - putting up with kids calling him "band-o." But then one day, lying on his bed chewing his fingernails, he realized it was up to him to turn his fortunes around, search out some friends and make something of his high school years. "I thought it was really deep," Verkiak said Saturday after arriving at the boy's Tustin home in a black limousine. "And I related to it." Verkiak explained that she felt like an outcast when she was first named Miss December 1989. Being a Playmate is a sisterhood, she said. And at first, she felt like she didn't fit in. "His essay was about wanting to be popular. And then not caring about being popular. And just being comfortable with who you are," she said. Popularity probably won't be an issue for Hocking anymore. His date caused a stir several days before the dance when the principal found out who he was taking. Principal Al Marzilli said the school called the parents of the other students attending the formal to find out whether anyone objected, but no one did. The district does not have an age policy "yet," Marzilli said. When Marzilli learned that the Playmate had shown up at Foothill High on Friday to meet her date for the first time, he asked the couple into his office and gave her the dress code. Nothing sheer or strapless. Verkiak emerged from her limo Saturday wearing a black Del Rosario gown as Hocking's friends and younger brother gawked from the sidewalk. "Go away!" Hocking's father, Rick, yelled at the kids from behind his video camera. "I'm so excited," Verkiak said, clutching Hocking's arm. "This is like a fairy tale." Hocking presented a red corsage. "Careful pinning that on," his dad yelled. Hocking's mother, Lori, had given her son's college entrance essay to a friend to read. That friend then read it to her friend, who happens to be Verkiak. When the friend saw that Verkiak was moved, she told her half-jokingly that the boy didn't have a date yet to the winter formal, a girl-ask-guy dance. Verkiak said that if no other girl asked him, she would. When the teen heard the offer, he was hesitant. "At first I thought, 'Go to the dance with a 35-year-old?' But then I realized, she's really hot," he said. Hocking said he never saw his date's Playboy photos. He was only 5 when she posed. Her Web site says she stands 5-foot-8 and was voted "sexiest Playmate of the '80s," among other things. "OK, I think I have to go brush my teeth one more time," Hocking said, running back into the house. "I'm very proud of this young man," his dad said, giving the thumbs up. As the limo drove away, Hocking's mom confided that she was a bit nervous. "Oh, I've got a big neckache," she said. "She seems nice." Hocking was taking his date to BJ's restaurant on Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach before the dance at California State University, Fullerton. "I'm just going to treat her like a regular date," he said.